Q&A: Robitaille's current job
Question: When you thought about retirement, did you always see yourself staying in hockey in some way? Did you anticipate a job such as this one?
ROBITAILLE: ``I didn't know. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I think that as I got near the end, Tim Leiweke sat down with me and started to talk to me about what I wanted to do. I think he finally said, `Why don't you come on board and just be a consultant?' At the time, the things were happening in Kansas City and I thought it would be a great way for me to learn. Then he gave me an opportunity to join all the meetings that they had.
``Seeing what was going on inside AEG, and the size of the business and everything, at one point Tim and I had a discussion and I said, `I think you need to change the model of the Kings.' I remember him asking, `What do you mean?' I feel fortunate that I was with other franchises, so that I could bring that back. I remember explaining to him that we needed people who worked for the Kings full time, even on the business side. I felt I could fill the gap between AEG and the Kings. Tim works so hard on everything, and he doesn't have time to deal with every single thing, so I felt that I could be a little bit of that bridge in between, so that we could become more of a stand-alone franchise. Tim agreed to it. He thought that was the right thing.
``As you know, Tim is very, very passionate about the Kings. He wants us to be successful. He always says, `We've got to have success.' He let us do pretty much anything we wanted, from that standpoint. It's been great. But it's not something I set out to do. It's just something that happened. I saw that there was a hole, and I have a lot of passion for the Kings franchise. So knowing that, I thought, `That's one thing that's missing.' A lot of my friends were season-seat holders and had been coming to games. I kept hearing a lot of their complaints, and I think in a lot of ways it was a perception. What happened was, AEG got so big, so fast, that... Dan Beckerman loves the Kings, Tim Leiweke loves the Kings, these guys are passionate Kings fans. For crying out loud, Tim is our biggest season-seat holder now. We made him buy four. (laughs) We keep on selling him.
``So it's been great from that standpoint, just like he has given a lot of freedom to Dean to really do what he wants. It's kind of funny, because they have taken a lot of heat over the years, but when people ask me about Phil and all that, I say, `They've never said no to me.' So I didn't set out to do this, but it just happened.''
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About the bloggers
J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
E-mail J.P. at jp.hoornstra@inlandnewspapers.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews
.com.
Vincent Bonsignore is a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. E-mail Vinny at vincent.bonsignore
@dailynews.com.
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Good to hear some positive comments regarding Tim Leiweke. And by that I mean, it is good to see that Luc believes in him. Maybe the Kings fans will believe in him someday, as well.
As an aside - I know most Kings fans are extremely optimistic about this upcoming season. As an University of Oregon grad and fan, I would suggest tempering the enthusiasm until actual results start to roll in. As quickly as things can change for the good, fate can turn towards the negative just as rapidly.
I love AEG. We're fortunate to have them and there deep pockets as owners. Keep up the good work!!!
no sarcasm intended
it's all very interesting, but what does he do? what is his current job? what does he bridge? and if he is being "a little bit of that bridge" how does that correlate to being a "more stand-alone franchise?" isn't being stand-ALONE sort of imply being without the need for a bridge? love luc, I just don't get what he does.
I stil think LUC could help the team a lot by spending a couple sessions with some of the younger FWs in the org, working on 1-timing technique, and other shooting techniques, as well as strategies for getting & holding good position in the near the net, timing around the net, etc.
Luc Robitaille was one of the all-time masters of all of the above things, and could certainly help our younger FWs with his Prime Tips.
I mean, fer Godsakes, the guy is a HOFer, and NOT because of his physical talents (size/speed), but because of his shot, his timing,
and his cleverness---ALL things that
can be TAUGHT!!
C'mon, Luc, stop being so dang modest,
and start TEACHING!!
This current crop needs exactly some of the things LUC ROBITAILLE knows, and could teach, so well.
The phrase in my above post should read:
holding good position in the area near the net,
(sorry for not modeling better sentence structure) :(